St. John’s begins its Big East schedule tonight — yes, New Year’s Eve — in an 8:00 start at Georgetown, arguably the team the Red Storm matches up with the worst in the league.

Oh yes, did we mention that the team took a five-hour bus trip yesterday and will do the return portion of the trip after the game, putting the players on the road on what is a notorious night for intoxicated drivers?

So much for Auld Lang Syne.

The Red Storm (9-2) has proven to be an aggressive, athletic, deep squad, which should serve it well over the course of an 18-league game schedule.

But it won’t be as great an advantage in the conference opener as it would be come midseason. Georgetown (9-1, 0-0) has just nine scholarship players after the transfer of Nikita Mescheriakov, but the Hoyas have what St. John’s doesn’t — elite big men.

Greg Monroe, the 6-11 stud, has gotten lots of help this season from 6-10 Henry Sims and 6-9 Julian Vaughn. And promising freshman Jerrelle Benimon figures to be the beneficiary of Mescheriakov’s absence.

“The thing I like about this team and just as important, what this team likes about itself, is that there’s a comfort level,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III told The Post. “They know their roles. They understand what they’re supposed to do and they enjoy doing it together.”

St. John’s is hoping to get 6-8 forward Justin Burrell back from a high-ankle sprain suffered in the loss at Duke, but coach Norm Roberts told The Post his return is 50-50.

Burrell went through a full practice yesterday, but he and Roberts acknowledged a week ago that he needed back-to-back full practices to be ready for the Big East opener.

The leaves 6-8 Sean Evans, 6-10 Dele Coker, 6-7 Justin Brownlee and 6-6 Rob Thomas to deal with the Hoya big men. Brownlee will be playing his first league game and Thomas is still trying to recapture the explosiveness that he lost to knee and groin injuries.

But the Red Storm’s depth and quickness on the perimeter is something that could give Georgetown trouble. The Hoyas opened 9-1 last season but finished 6-14 as depth and chemistry issues took their toll.

“What I appreciate about St. John’s is that there’s very little dropoff from the 1’s and the 2’s,” said Thompson. “And most of those guys have been through the wars.”